Italian houses, lapis and relics: Inside Cleopatra’s Bling’s latest demi-fine jewellery collection

“The line is a thread that connects everything I do, and I’m still following where it leads.”

While anything we choose to adorn ourselves in carries meaning, jewellery holds a special type of sentimental value. Our most cherished pieces typically enter our lives in special ways: they’re gifts, symbols of love, pre-loved finds or tangible rewards for reaching milestones. Other times, they might come to us as an heirloom, passed down through generations.

It’s this idea of lineage that inspired Study of a Line, the new collection from Australian jewellery label, Cleopatra’s Bling. “Now that I have my own daughter, who is almost one, these ideas of lineage, inheritance and the quiet power of tradition feel even more poignant to me,” says founder and designer Olivia Cummings.

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She’s speaking from her new apartment in Madrid, surrounded by samples, loose stones, jewellery reference books, sketches and components in solid gold for a collection set to be released next year.

“There’s always a strange quietness once a collection is finished and ready to be sent out into the world, because so much of the energy has been poured into making it real,” Olivia says. “I feel both relieved and restless.”

Though the finished designs have reached one endpoint, they’re now ready to find new homes and begin anew. “It feels like watching something you’ve raised finally go out into the world.”

The monumental and the intimate

Having founded the jewellery label in 2014, Cleopatra’s Bling has taken Olivia around the globe and back. From her former home in Melbourne to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, culture and history have long inspired her work. “I always seem to circle back to symbols, dynasties and relics of the past. I never try and reinvent the wheel,” she says.

For this collection, Olivia felt a familiar tug towards history, this time looking to the dynasties of four Italian houses: the Canossas, the Gracchi, the Medici and the Borgias, each filled with their own stories of drama, power, art and intimacy.

Yet her approach this time was different. Olivia decided to follow this thread back, looking to her earliest work and motifs, including gorgoneions, seals and twists of metal.

When describing the collection, she speaks of it as a ‘coming of age’. ”There’s a sense of continuity, of acknowledging where Cleopatra’s Bling began, being playful and letting myself feel almost child-like, while also stretching towards something sharper and more intentional,” she adds.

The result is both opulent and intimate. Where a seal ring may speak to a sense of authority and presence, a small hinge or braid echoes feelings of touch, closeness and small gestures. “I think life is always lived between extremes,” she says. “I wanted the collection to hold both scales, because both are part of legacy.”

“The Medici bracelet feels especially powerful to me, with [its] weight and authority, while the Cornelia set, named for the Gracchi matriarch, carries a more intimate resonance. She famously called her children her jewels and I think that speaks to the heart of what jewellery really is: not just ornament, but love embodied and legacy carried.”

Known for its deep-blue colour, lapis also appears in Study of a Line’s Canossa earrings and Galilei necklace, just as it did in earlier Cleopatra’s Bling collections. In this collection, the gem becomes another thread tying the collection together, serving both as a reminder of the brand’s earliest pieces, and where it stands now.

The process

Olivia relied on lost-wax casting when designing Study of a Line. Her process starts with a feeling or an image, perhaps a symbol seen in a museum or details on a building. From there, she translates that directly into wax: ”[It’s] hand-carved and imperfect, which is exactly how I like it.”

The technique itself, which Olivia first learned when training with master artisans in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, has remained unchanged for thousands of years. “The wax form is encased in plaster, the wax is melted away and molten metal takes its place, capturing every tiny mark of the maker’s hand,” she explains.

Finally, the piece is cast and polished, but as Olivia notes, never to perfection. “For me, jewellery is at its most powerful when you can still sense the hand that made it.”

A line does not end

From ancient coins and symbols to the art of lost-wax casting, each piece is grounded in imagery and techniques spanning across time and place. “It speaks to the idea that we are all part of a continuum, connected by what came before and what will follow after,” she explains.

“Whether it’s a chain around the neck, a lion’s head on a ring, or a braid etched into metal, each form holds the memory of touch and transmission. I wanted the pieces to feel like artefacts of relation, tangible reminders that creation itself is always a collaborative act, even across centuries.”

Ultimately, the line that threads both this collection and Olivia’s wider body of work together is never-ending. It carries fragments of her past, while changing shape as it moves forward.

“Creatively, it’s about returning to the roots of my work, while also beginning again with new forms, new collaborations and new geographies that reflect this stage of my life,” Olivia says. “The line is a thread that connects everything I do and I’m still following where it leads.”

Visit our Collingwood store to discover the weight and feel of precious metals. Take a seat and sip on complimentary drinks while trying on the new collection. Our friendly, expert staff look forward to seeing you. Find the collection here.